Maps of energy demand from buildings in Great Britain have been created at 1 km square
resolution. They reveal the spatial variation of demand for heat and electricity, of importance
for energy distribution studies and particularly for bioenergy research given the significant
distance-based restrictions on the viability of bioenergy crops.
Maps representing the spatial variation of energy demand for the year 2009 were created
using publicly available sub-national gas and electricity consumption data. A new statistical
model based on census data was used to increase the spatial resolution. The energy demand
was split into thermal energy (the heat energy required for space heating and hot water) and
electricity used for purposes other than heating (non-heating electricity or NHE), and was
determined separately for the domestic and non-domestic sectors.
“Scenario factors”, representing the fractional change at national level in the demand for heat
and NHE, were derived from scenarios constructed by UKERC. These scenarios represent a
range of pathways from the present day to 2050. The present work focused on the two cases
of greatest relevance, the “Low Carbon” (LC) and “Additional Policies” (ADD) scenarios,
and factors for both were derived, for the demand types described, for every five years
between 2000 and 2050. Approximate future spatial energy demands can be obtained by
applying the scenario factors to the base mapping data for 2009.

Description:

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the article which has been published in final form at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12165